HarperCollins takes over at ABC Books

Former Herald journalist Michael Visontay started last week as publisher of the newly formed ABC Books division of HarperCollins.

The ABC has long pondered the sale of its book arm and did not replace publisher Stuart Neal, who left a year ago (and has just joined Allen & Unwin as a consultant publisher). After 11 publishers expressed interest in a partnership last year, HarperCollins won the deal and in May officially takes over running the business, from commissioning to distribution and publicity, in consultation with the ABC.

Visontay will report to Shona Martyn, HarperCollins's publishing director, who has been interviewing redundant ABC staff with the aim of hiring "a good proportion". She takes seriously the responsibility of owning "one of the most respected brands in Australia" and plans to expand its annual list to 50 nonfiction and 50 children's books with appeal to audiences "from the Triple J end to the Radio National end, as well as television".

There will, however, be no fiction, which means the death of the three-year-old ABC Fiction Award; entries will be directed to the HarperCollins-sponsored Varuna manuscript award. Martyn says she would like to attract more books from significant ABC journalists. Books like Chris Masters's contentious biography of Alan Jones, which was dropped by ABC Books? "Yes, we would have published Chris Masters," she says, "but maybe not as ABC Books."